Homemade Toy: Car Garage

I saw this homemade car garage for toy cars over at What do we do all day? and made it for some insta-fun. I used a Pop-tarts box. I cut off one side and use it (and lots of tape) to make the central level.
We also used an empty animal crackers box as a makeshift airplane hanger.
I made this for Dalton, and even though he's in none of the pictures, he enjoyed playing with it, too.

Upcycle By Hand: Pants to Pants

Dalton Boy is sorely in need of new pants. He grew out of the ones he was wearing when we came, but not into the hand me downs we brought. I took a pair of my khakis that had a rip and used them to make some pants for him. Here he is modeling them with a 9-12 month onesie. Hmm. Perhaps this is why the hand me downs don't fit.

I made a casing for 1 inch elastic only to find that I used most of it on Maggie's Halloween costume. I had to make due with 1/4", so he's got a little ruffle around the waist.

But you can't tell when he wears a t-shirt!

Cheese! Yes, I sewed these entirely by hand. Yay me.

New Videos

If you haven't noticed (and you probably haven't, but you probably don't care either) I made a new blog category called "Videos". The kids and I like to watch old videos of them, and this makes them easy to find. Some of my favorites are Aunto Bacho, Dalton's first steps (co-starring Aunt Erin and Ember, with voiceovers by Uncle Brook and Grandma - always good when we're missing family) and crazy dancing at Christmas.

Here are lots of new videos from today. First up: Dalton spelling the word "Friends" on his shirt. He did it this morning, and it reminded me of this video of Maggie, so I had him do it again on camera.

Here is a video Maggie made of me. She's very proud of it.

Maggie tells you all about Gondola and what dinosaurs are (and aren't) there.

Maggie sings her new favorite Primary song, "Stand for the Right."

Maggie tries "Stand for the Right" again.

Maggie makes up words to "Praise to the Man." Because we have all the Primary kids together here, the song-teaching caters to the older kids who can read, thus Maggie has a difficult time learning the songs, no matter how many times we sing them. Also, how many words in "Praise to the Man" does she even understand? Anyway, the video's hilarious.

Today We're Going to GOND!

One of Maggie's wildest dreams came true yesterday. She's been counting down to a trip to Gond. Who am I to spoil the fun?

Maggie packed stuffed animals, dinosaurs and a ball for Dalton to play with.
Arriving at Gond.
John made this lovely sign for Toucan Airlines.
The "airplane" was too heavy, so the kids ended up getting individual airplane rides in my arms instead.
Gond has dinosaurs, but they went missing. So, of course, we had to go on a dinosaur hunt. Maggie repeated this activity for me throughout the day, and we found several more John had hidden each time.
Gond has a swimming pool with bubbles, balls, and "a mushroom umbrella with a bucket of water that dumps on it." I think Maggie looks a bit like Ember in this picture.
For lunch Maggie requested a Bee lunch. We opened a bag of Cheetos just for this occasion.

Bangalore: UB City, Shiva Temple and ISKCON

UB City. Maggie loves this place. She grumped at the temple, but perked right up when we got here!

ISKCON Temple (Hare Krishna)

Shiva Temple

Hampi with Jod: Anegundi

Since we saw nearly all of Hampi on our first day, we decided to cross the river to Anegundi the next day. We hiked up Anjanadri Hill for a great view of the area.

View of Anegundi and Hampi (across the river)

680 steps.

On the way back to the dock, we got out of our auto and walked the last bit (much to the driver's confusion) so I could take a picture of the Maxicon restaurant.

Rice Paddies

Waiting half an hour for the lazy boat drivers to come across and get us.

Lying on the ruins above the river.

Jodi is standing where I'm lying in the above picture.

A boy and his goats.

Mango Tree (we ate every meal here)

Banana plantations on the way to Mango Tree

Hampi With Jodi: Hampi Ruins

My trip to Hampi with Jodi

First class sleeper cabin

Hmm. That must be us.

Lotus Mahal

Elephant Stables

Queen's Bath

One of many photo ops

Octagonal Bath

Vittala Temple

Coracle boat ride

Ahaha... I'm not sure why this guy was standing there with his tiffen, but it makes me laugh still.

Narasimha

Virupaksha Temple

Love this sign. Don't worry, they put it up after we left.

Jodi making friends with Lakshmi, the temple elephant.